For many years, I have tried to understand why students end up in difficulties in mathematics. As a future teacher, it is extremely important to have knowledge of the various factors that leads to difficulties in mathematics. As a teacher it is obvious to meet the students who find mathematics a difficult subject, and, therefore it is necessary to have a broader knowledge of how to respond and support these students. According to Ahlberg, number of students with mathematics difficulties is increasing every year, therefore, it is important to help students and organize a supporting school environment that promotes and encourages learning (Ahlberg 2001, p. 104-105).

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether intensive teaching of reading strategies at an individual level can affect reading comprehension for students in second grade. A quantitative method with quasi-experimental design is used. All students in the experimental class trained on reading comprehension strategies at their particular level five times each. Before and after training a reading comprehension test was made. The reference class did the same test.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate in what manner librarians and pedagogues can cooperate in order to help students with reading and writing problems and consequently enhance their information literacy. I aimed to investigate why cooperation between these professions is necessary. Also, I wanted to find out how the general support is on the schools regarding students with reading and writing difficulties, and if the school librarian knows what the special educator can contribute with and vice versa. Lastly, I focused on what knowledge the performers of these professions have about reading and writing difficulties and to what degree their knowledge is based on scientifically proven methods.The two theoretical points of departure are 1) theory of cooperation built upon Louise Limberg?s and Lena Folkesson?s three categories of cooperation 2) and Aidan Chambers?s reading promoting model named the circle of reading.

Reading difficulties is the most common learning difficulty in the western world and it is common that people with reading disabilities also exhibit arithmetic difficulties. Different theories about the cause of the relationship exists, one theory describes the importance of good phonological ability in reading as well as in arithmetic, while another theory describes the importance of a reliable number system and that only a subgroup of students with reading disabilities also have difficulties with arithmetic. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students with Reading difficulties (RD), without any known mathematical difficulties, perform on mathematical tasks relative to a control group. The study was theoretically grounded on the Triple code model (Dehaene, 1992), which is a model for numerical information processing that describes how various numerical and arithmetic tasks are processed through three distinct representation systems in the brain, a verbal and a visual representation system and a quantity system. Reading skills, phonological skills, arithmetic skills and number processing skills were examined in 61 students through a variety of tests.

Children with Reading and Writing Difficulties and Their Language and Cognitive AbilitiesA Comparison with Children with a Cochlear ImplantAbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the cognitive abilities that are important for reading in children with reading disabilities, children with a cochlear implantation and typically developed children. 64 children aged 10-12 years participated in the study. To answer the question at issue we used the following tests: Block Design from WISC III, PPVT III, TOWRE, SL 40 and a few chosen tests out of the SIPS battery. On tests of the lexical access children with reading disabilities performed at the same level as hearing children, while the children with a cochlear implant performed significantly lower. Test of the phonological and complex working memory showed that children with reading disabilities performed significantly higher than children with a cochlear implant, but at the same time lower than typically developed children on the test of phonological working memory.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to illuminate if the preventive practices and the identification of early signals about reading and writing difficulties is different between two Norwegian and two Swedish teachers' work in preschool. Research questions focused on the differences as well as similarities between Swedish and Norwegian educators working preventively current literacy in preschool, and their efforts when they identify signals to reading and writing difficulties.The study has been conducted through interviews with four female teachers, two who work  in Norway and two in Sweden.Swedish and Norwegian teachers work preventively on reading and writing, analysis resulted in three categories; books in text and pictures, words and rhyming chants and songs. No differences between Norwegian and Swedish pedagogues? prevention methods could be identified, however Norwegian teachers put more focus on rhythm and rhythmic pat exercises than the Swedish educators.The conclusions are that the Norwegian teachers mention more preventative approaches and early intervention for children with suspected dyslexia, than the Swedish teachers in the study makes. The Norwegian teachers also seem to have access to more expertise in connection with suspected dyslexia, compared to the Swedish teachers.

Abstract People who have problems with the written language will face serious difficulties in todays society. Our social structur is based on the criterium that every individual has to be able to read and write, and for this reason it is important that pupils with learning difficulties receive help. The purpose of my investigation is to examine how children with reading- and writing difficulties can benefit throught creative methods. Children with reading- and writing difficulties are in need of these creative methods that exist today. Amongst all of our public healht issues, dyslexia is one of the biggest problem we have today and children are therefor in need of these creative methods. Through  qualitative interviews with two educationalists there has been established thad the creative way of working benefits children in many ways if it is preformed correctly.

For many years, I have tried to understand why students end up in difficulties in mathematics. As a future teacher, it is extremely important to have knowledge of the various factors that leads to difficulties in mathematics. As a teacher it is obvious to meet the students who find mathematics a difficult subject, and, therefore it is necessary to have a broader knowledge of how to respond and support these students. According to Ahlberg, number of students with mathematics difficulties is increasing every year, therefore, it is important to help students and organize a supporting school environment that promotes and encourages learning (Ahlberg 2001, p. 104-105).

????The aim is to examine how written production differs between students with and without difficulties in writing. The study also examine how different difficulties within writing interplay. It is based on analysis of ten-year old student texts with 30 texts from both an experimental and a control group. Texts were written in 1991.Both spelling, technique of writing and syntactic complexity differ between the groups.

Studies show that some pupils with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) can have difficulties in understanding written texts. The present study seeks to examine whether pupils with ASD differ in their reading comprehension of a factual text and a literary text. Another aim of the study is to obtain a picture of the reading habits of high school pupils with ASD, what reading strategies they use, and how they work with texts in Swedish lessons in school.The study uses texts from PISA surveys from 2009 and 2000. The factual text Varmluftsballongen (The Hot-air Balloon) was taken from the try-out for the 2009 survey and the literary text Gåvan (The Gift) was taken from the 2000 PISA survey. To gain some idea of the pupils? reading comprehension of the texts, the present study used the tasks accompanying the texts, with certain changes in the questions about the text on the hot-air balloon.

AbstractMany pupils struggleto read. Teachers must therefore know how to motivate these pupils. In this qualitative study the aim is to investigate what some teachers do to motivate pupils to read. Data were collected through interviews with four teachers from two schools. The teachers said that the choice of book was extremely important for making pupils interested in reading, and that reading aloud and cooperation with parents and libraries are of great importance.

The aim of this study is to investigate a number of class teachers' thoughts on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in early literacy learning. The study has been conducted as a qualitative study, interviewing five teachers with the help of an interview guide. Three central questions were posed.What perception do the teachers have about the use of ICT in their tuition?What perception do the teachers have about the pupils' literacy learning in teaching with ICT tools?What perception do the teachets have about teaching and learning by means of ICT when it comes to pupils with reading and writing difficulties/dyslexia?The overall theoretical basis of the study is Vygotskij's sociocultural theory.In conclusion, the result of the study is as follows.Most class teachers feel that the training they have undergone in ICT education was adequate, but they also call for skill development.Most teachers believe that the use of ICT tools provide opportunities to adapt their teaching to pupils' knowledge level. The teachers' opinion is that ICT in teaching is useful for pupils' progress in early literacy learning.Most teachers also believe that ICT tools in teaching can be of some help for pupils with reading and writing difficulties/dyslexia.One obstacle in helping these pupils is lack of time.Therefore, the majority of the teachers hand these pupils over to special education outside the classroom..

Den här uppsatsen handlar om vilket synsätt pedagoger, skolledning och den politiska nivån har på elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter. För att ta reda på rådande synsätt på dessa elever har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ respondentintervju med sex pedagoger, två skolledare samt två personer från stadsdelsförvaltning. För att ta reda på vilket synsätt man har på elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Vår studie syftar till att göra en empirisk undersökning för att skapa oss en bild om vilka rådande synsätt på elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter som finns inom våra skolområden. Vi har studerat tidigare forskning och historik som kan ligga till bakgrund för rådande synsätt på elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter.

Studies show that some pupils with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) can have difficulties in understanding written texts. The present study seeks to examine whether pupils with ASD differ in their reading comprehension of a factual text and a literary text. Another aim of the study is to obtain a picture of the reading habits of high school pupils with ASD, what reading strategies they use, and how they work with texts in Swedish lessons in school.The study uses texts from PISA surveys from 2009 and 2000. The factual text Varmluftsballongen (The Hot-air Balloon) was taken from the try-out for the 2009 survey and the literary text Gåvan (The Gift) was taken from the 2000 PISA survey. To gain some idea of the pupils? reading comprehension of the texts, the present study used the tasks accompanying the texts, with certain changes in the questions about the text on the hot-air balloon.

The aim of this study was to investigate which factors teachers and special needs education teachers view as being the main causes of mathematical learning difficulties and from these choose how to educate pupils with these difficulties. The aim was also to investigate how this education is organised at two different schools. An interview based investigation addressed these objectives by using three comprehensive questions:Which factors do the teachers and special needs teachers view as being the main reasons for mathematical learning difficulties?How do teachers and special needs teachers educate pupils with mathematical learning difficulties?How is the education organised for pupils with mathematical learning difficulties at two different schools?This study is based on four interviews of three teachers and one special needs teacher. The people interviewed work at two different primary schools in the same local authority.